House Approves Bill for NSF to Pursue Privacy-Enhancing Tech

The House of Representatives voted on May 11 to approve H.R. 847 – the Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act, by a margin of 401-19.

The legislation introduced last year by Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., would “direct the National Science Foundation to support merit-reviewed and competitively awarded research on privacy enhancing technologies.”

Research areas required by the legislation include:

• Research on technologies for de-identification, pseudonymization, anonymization, or obfuscation to mitigate individuals’ privacy risks in data sets while maintaining fairness, accuracy, and efficiency;
• Research on algorithms and other similar mathematical tools used to protect individual privacy; and
• Research awards on privacy enhancing technologies coordinated with other relevant Federal agencies and programs.